Ginger Cup Cakes with Clementine Cream Cheese Icing

I don’t do much cake baking, I think it’s because it’s less forgiving if you make a little ‘change’ to the recipe by putting too much or little of something in. However this is one cake recipe I do make, it’s sticky, gingery and orangey at the same time which is good in my book.

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the cup cakes

125g unsalted butter

175g dark muscovado sugar

150g golden syrup

275g self-raising flour

1 1/2tsp ground ginger

Zest of 1 clementine, finely grated

1/4 tsp salt

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

100ml butter milk

2 balls of stem ginger in syrup, chopped

For the icing

150g Cream Cheese

75g icing sugar

Zest of 1 clementine, finely grated

Juice of 1 clementine

Slivers of clementine zest and stem ginger, to decorate

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C\ 150C fan\Gas 3

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases

Melt butter, muscovado sugar and golden syrup in a pan over a low heat and set aside to cool slightly

Sift flour into a bowl with the ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda then add the salt and clementine zest.

Add the metled butter, sugar and syrup mixture, eggs, buttermilk and stem ginger to the flour and mix thoroughly.

Pour into the cases, the mix will reach quite high up the sides.

Bake for around 25 minutes until golden and springy, Don’t worry if they haven’t risen particularly well as the are meant to be a dense and sticky sponge.

Allow to cool in the tin,this makes the sponge even more squidgy.

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth

sift the icing sugar over and gradually beat in

Add the clementine juice and zest and mix until fully incorporated

Smooth a generous amount over each cupcake and top with the slivers of stem ginger and clementine zest for decoration.

Eat and enjoy….

If you like your ginger sponge to have a stronger, richer flavour, wrap the tin of un-iced cakes tightly in foil or cling-film and leave for a day or two. The sponge will get darker and the flavour more intense. Ice, decorate and enjoy even more gingery sticky goodness…